newsobserver.com projects - Some quick math on Beason's lobbying - Comments

Re: Some quick math on Beason's lobbying

PaulTerrell — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:58:37 -0400

So Beason, A democrat by the way, did not pay income taxes on the part he did not report? So why haven't he and his son been arrested?

Re: Some quick math on Beason's lobbying

j1c2kp — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:09:04 -0400

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I was ready to sign up as a lobbyist.

Re: Some quick math on Beason's lobbying

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:01:15 -0400

No, you're wrong. I'm talking about what Beason and his clients reported to the N.C. Secretary of State as lobbying payments.

He'd have to report all income — lobbying and consulting — to the Internal Revenue Service, and by extension, the N.C. Department of Revenue.

To be clear, I'm not aware of any allegations that he's not paid taxes.

— RTB

Re: Some quick math on Beason's lobbying

j1c2kp — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:53:30 -0400

Ryan am I reading this right? He could have possibly made a million or more but only reported $145,521, meaning he didn't have to pay the IRS, just pocketed the money? Is that some law that those wonderful politicians came up with?

Man am I in the wrong line of work.

Some quick math on Beason's lobbying

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:39:02 -0400

How much did Don Beason really make last year?

If Raleigh attorney Michael Weisel is correct, then most lobbyists' clients report from 15 to 30 percent of their payments to the state.

According to a report from Democracy North Carolina, Beason reported $145,521 from 16 clients in 2007.

That would put his actual income at between $485,070 and $970,140.

Of course, Beason is being investigated for underreporting his income — and we use this word to mean reporting below the traditional and reasonable amount used by other state lobbyists — so the real pay could be much higher.

As noted previously, Beason may have reported about 16 percent of his pay from the Albemarle Mental Health Center, five percent from IBM in 2004 and potentially 10 percent from BB&T.